Marchione won about 47 percent of the vote, Andrews had 37 percent and McDonald had about 16 percent of the vote, according to unofficial tallies at press time.

"We did it; We did it!" she said to GOP supŽporters at the Holiday Inn on Broadway in Saratoga Springs. "This is Team Marchione. I didn't do this on my own. It took almost everyone in this room."

Advertisement

During her victory speech, Marchione said that people called her campaign hopeless in the beginning. But then they got to work, making phone calls and knocking on doors.

"Thanks to all of you we pulled it off."

Marchione compared her campaign to the challenges confronting her as a new state senŽator.

"State government is strangling the private sector," she said. "Some people say it's hopeŽless. All I have to say to them is, 'Let's get to work.' I'm ready to get to work turning our state around."

Marchione said she wants to be on the Racing and Wagering Committee and Agriculture Committee, adding that she will be working hard between now and then to put her team together.

Marchione, 58, of Halfmoon was endorsed by the Conservative and Republican parties. She has been the Saratoga County Clerk for 14 years and before that was a town superviŽsor in Halfmoon.

She beat out Democrat challenger Robin Andrews, 50, in the district that spans from Moreau in the north of Saratoga County down to Columbia County, where Andrews has been town supervisor of Claverack for five years.

McDonald appeared on the ballot on the Independence Party line despite suspending his campaign in the wake of his Republican primary loss in September.

Marchione challenged McDonald in the priŽmary saying the district had "lost its conserŽvative voice" in the Senate following his vote to legalize same-sex marriage. After a bitterly divisive primary race she won by just over 100 votes.

Republican Saratoga Springs Mayor Scott Johnson said he was an early supporter of McDonald but "respects voters" and think Marchione will do a "fine job," adding that he thinks it's "really about unifying."

Both Andrews and Marchione, however, said social issues took a back seat to the econŽomy in the general election.

The newly-redrawn 43rd State Senate District - representing most of Rensselaer County, two towns in Washington County, the eastern half of Saratoga County and all of Columbia County - has just more than 200,000 registered voters.